Effects of Functional Groups of Materials on Nonspecific Adhesion and Chondrogenic Induction of Mesenchymal Stem Cells on Free and Micropatterned Surfaces

Functional groups of materials are known to affect cell behaviors, yet the corresponding effect on stem cell differentiation is always coupled with that of cell spreading; it is thus unclear whether the chemical groups influence cell differentiation directly or via cell spreading indirectly. Herein we used a unique surface patterning technique to decouple the corresponding effects. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) derived from bone marrow were seeded on surfaces coated with alkanethiols with one of four functional end groups (−CH3, −OH, −COOH, and −NH2) and underwent 9 days of chondrogenic induction. The measurements of quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation confirmed less proteins adsorbed from the cell culture media on the neutral −CH3 and −OH surfaces than on the charged −COOH and −NH2 surfaces. The neutral surfaces exhibited less cell spreading and higher extents of chondrogenic differentiation than the charged surfaces, according to the characterizations of immunofluorescence staining and quantita...